The present embodiments relate to quantification of cardiac flow based on three-dimensional (3D) or volumetric imaging.
Valvular heart diseases are recognized as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Accurate quantification of cardiac volume flow in patients aids in the evaluation of the progression of the disease and in the determination of clinical options. The quantification of the volume of flow may assist in the evaluation of patients with other cardiac dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.
Recent advances in real-time, 3D full volume echocardiography have enabled high frame rate acquisition of volumetric color flow images. However, accurate flow quantification remains a significant challenge for cardiologists.
Doppler ultrasound is a non-invasive and cost-effective method for evaluation of intracardiac blood flow, for assessment of cardiac function, for estimation of shunt flows in congenital cardiac defects, and for assessment of regurgitation in the presence of valvular disease. With real-time, full volume echocardiography, it is now feasible to acquire transthoracic 3D color flow images (CFI) for every heartbeat (without stitching) such that both mitral valve and LVOT flow can be covered individually or together by the color Doppler region of interest.
However, a fundamental limitation of color Doppler data, flow velocity aliasing, remains a problem. Aliasing can introduce significant errors in flow quantification directly using color Doppler data. Attempts to overcome the velocity ambiguity have relied on customized hardware or geometric assumptions based on the recognition that ultrasound data alone is insufficient when true velocity is several multiples of the Nyquist level.